The seat is primarily residential, with pockets of commercial and retail activity and hosts the Magill campus of the University of South Australia.

Sturt has the state's highest proportion of residents aged over 65 (19.7 percent) according to the 2011 Census and the state's highest proportion of Chrsitians (62.2 percent) with the percentage of Catholics, 29.0, also the highest in the state.

Liberal member Christopher Pyne has held the seat since 1993 and won the 2010 election by 3.43 percent (two-party preferred) which lifted to 3.60 after redistribution.